


Get Well Soon!

by newisalwaysbetter



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Hospital Setting, Human Disaster Garcia Flynn, Humor, Injured Rufus, Sarcasm, cursing, riya cuteness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:09:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24577345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/newisalwaysbetter/pseuds/newisalwaysbetter
Summary: They have a running rotation watching over Rufus in the hospital. Flynn tries to be helpful.(Prompt: “Did you bring me balloons?” “Yeah, they didn’t have any that said 'congrats on surviving being shot four times' so I had to improvise sorry.”)
Relationships: Rufus Carlin & Garcia Flynn, Rufus Carlin/Jiya
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	Get Well Soon!

**Author's Note:**

> Set in a post-Chinatown Rufus Recovery. Warnings for hospitals and implications of gun violence/injury.

The team has been watching over him while he recovers. There’s a working rotation. Rufus knows this.

Still, he had somehow failed to realize said rotation would include Flynn, which is why he comes to scrambling upright, not immediately recognizing the well-groomed man flipping through an issue of _Highlights_ in the chair beside his hospital bed.

“Welcome back,” Flynn says without looking up. “Have a good sleep while the rest of us were off fighting Rittenhouse?”

Rufus chooses to ignore that, glancing up at the colorful Mylar bouncing above Flynn’s head. “You _say_ that, but I see you thought to bring…balloons.”

Flynn looks up, and folds his _Highlights_ magazine closed with a sigh. “I _wanted_ to bring a little something to take the edge off–” a disconcerting eyebrow wiggle– “but eventually decided against it.”

“Right.” Rufus reaches shakily for the glass of water at his bedside, and Flynn leans over to push it closer. “Did you decide that, or did Lucy and Agent Christopher decide it for you?”

Flynn’s scowl betrays everything. “Drink your water.”

While he drinks, Rufus’s eyes drift up towards the balloons, and he squints to make out the shape the shiny Mylar. When he makes it out, he almost spits out his drink. (Flynn notes his alarm with widened eyes but makes no move to help him.)

Bouncing on strings above Flynn’s head are eight balloons. The first is a generically round _Get Well Soon!_ featuring some sort of dancing farmyard animal. The other seven are shiny letters linked together by the flimsiest of plastic, spelling out _HAPPY 4!_

Rufus sputters. “ _Why would you get that?_ ”

“Oh, these?” Flynn glances up, tugs pleasantly on the string to make the balloons bounce, and then gives Rufus one of those toothy, delighted smiles that always make his blood run cold. “To cheer you up, of course. Be happy, like the balloon says.“

“I am not _happy_ that Emma turned me into Swiss cheese, okay.”

“None of us were.” Flynn’s brow furrows, and Rufus can’t tell if he’s being sarcastic. “I was _worried;_ that’s why I brought them. Sorry they didn’t have _Recover soon from four bullets to the chest!_ balloons; I had to improvise.”

“Improvise,” Rufus repeats, still caught in the absurdity of it all.

“Besides, the bullets aren’t in you any more. You can be happy about _that._ ”

While Flynn returns to his _Highlights_ magazine, Rufus stares at him for a full thirty seconds. 

“Why did the hospital even let you in here? Aren’t you, like, still wanted for murder?” 

Flynn gives him a Look over the magazine– _since when have I waited to be let in anywhere?_ –and Rufus shakes his head. “Right. Don’t know why I asked.”

They’ve been sitting there in a silence that Rufus thinks is more uncomfortable than silences with Flynn already are, when Flynn turns a page of his magazine and says idly, “I mean, you could press that button, but Jiya will be here in fifteen minutes, so you may as well just wait.”

There’s no reasonable way for Flynn to know that Rufus’s fingers have been twitching towards the _Call Nurse_ button, but Rufus gave up trying to guess What Flynn Knows back with Benedict Arnold.

“You know that _Highlights_ is for children, right?”

“I like to find the differences,” Flynn says without looking up. “Keeps me sharp.”

“Maybe you could check out _Goofus and Gallant_ while you’re at it,” Rufus mutters. “You might learn something.”

Flynn flips him off.

By the time Jiya comes in, Flynn is long gone. She tugs on the balloons, her nose crinkling, and chuckles. They’re squished against the ceiling, so that the exclamation mark is beginning to resemble a question: _4?_ “Where’d these come from?”

“Flynn. I _know,_ ” Rufus adds, at her baffled look. “I guess he was worried. I mean, as much as the Terminator _can_ worry.”

Jiya snorts and climbs into the hospital bed beside Rufus, resting her head on his shoulder. They’ve been reading old pulp sci-fi novels together, and she’s brought several new ones. “He’s just trying to be part of the team.” 

“Poorly,” Rufus mutters as Jiya selects a book. “Someone needs to give that guy lessons.” Then, with a glance at the balloons–so like Flynn himself in their morbidity and their strange cheerfulness–he concedes finally, “I guess so. In his own way.” A strange, sudden warmth overtakes him, and Rufus kisses Jiya’s temple so hard she giggles. “I like our way better, though.”

Jiya hums, and turns her head to lean into a smiling kiss. “Yeah. Same here.”


End file.
